Egypt's new authorities pave the way for the release of Hosni Mubarak

Egypt's new authorities on Monday paved the way for the release of the former
president, Hosni Mubarak, further deepening the country's already violent
political divide.

Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak sits inside a dock in April at the police academy on the outskirts of CairoPhoto: REUTERS

By Richard Spencer in Cairo and Damien McElroy

7:22PM BST 19 Aug 2013

Despite a worsening security situation, the interim regime showed no sign of letting up its reassertion of the military power thought to have disappeared with Mr Mubarak's overthrow.

The new prosecutor-general dropped charges of embezzlement against him, which means a minor charge of accepting illegal gifts from a state-owned newspaper is left as the only outstanding accusation on which he can remain in jail.

He still faces charges of complicity in the shooting dead of more than 800 protesters in the 2011 revolution which ended his rule, but the term limit on his remand on custody has expired in that case.

The regime has also continued to defend the killing of hundreds of demonstrators as army and police cleared protests last week.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Egyptian ambassador to London compared the crackdown to the 2011 London riots.

"There is no difference with what David Cameron did to deal with the demonstrations here in London," the ambassador, Ashraf el-Kholy, said. "If the demonstrators don't have any weapons, the police could have reached them and taken them into custody. Nobody would have been hurt.

"But when the demonstrators have pistols and guns and the police are lined up with guns pointing at them, the authorities have to defend themselves.

That is the difference."

The interim authorities and its strongman, Gen Abdulfattah al-Sisi, claim to be acting in accordance with the spirit of the 2011 revolution, but a faction still regards Mr Mubarak, who has been in custody since April 2011, as a wronged man.

When the foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, was asked at a recent press briefing whether it was right that Mr Morsi, an elected president, should have been arrested, he said that Mr Mubarak had also been elected. While that is technically true, few people and virtually no international observers regarded ballots under his rule as free and fair.

Mr Mubarak was jailed for life last year for failing to stop the killing of 846 protesters, but that verdict was quashed and he is being retried.

His release, even if on technical grounds, would be seen as a sign that the removal of Mr Morsi amounted to a counter-revolution. Mubarak-era officials have already been appointed to senior positions, including provincial governorships.

Farid Deeb, his lawyer, told Reuters news agency that the last remaining procedures to free his client would be carried out within 48 hours and he could be released after that. Khaled Abu Bakr, a lawyer for some of the families of the dead in the principal case, said that the newspaper charge would be dropped if Mr Mubarak paid over a sum equivalent to the gifts, which he is said to have already done.

European Union foreign ministers will meet to discuss their next steps on Wednesday.

Bernardino Leon, its envoy to Egypt, said they would consider cutting EU aid. Saudi Arabia showed its support for the military by pledging that Arab and Islamic countries would step in to help Egypt if Western nations cut aid.

Mr Kholy said Britain should take a "statesmanlike" approach and consider long-term interests.

"Europe is the conscience of the world. No one can say violence is good but there should be recognition from European governments that there is action and reaction that leads to more life lost," he said.

He said the Muslim Brotherhood had sought to dominate Egypt like the Nazis or the Islamic revolution in Iran. "Morsi was elected president and held office for one year but in that time he tried to make everything Muslim Brotherhood controlled."

Crispin Blunt, an MP and former Tory minister who visited the protest camps in Cairo before they were broken up, said Mr Kholy should be expelled.

"Given that this is an administration that has completely ignored our warnings, there is no benefit in trying to keep normal lines of communication open to it. It has made itself illegitimate," he said.

"Its ambassador should be dismissed. Plainly there are any number of economic, development and travel measures that should also be considered.

These are all measures that I believe almost all of our EU allies would support to make crystal clear just what our values are."